The many great across the world

news, and the two are of physical

and bless you all of physical.

He bless you, Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the

support of the Philosophy Department at Kings College London and the

LMU in Munich online at www history of philosophy. net. Today's

episode, your attention please, Peter Olivier.

Here's a riddle which I only just made up. What do you sometimes not pay when you want to and at other times pay without

trying? The answer is attention. Attempting to focus on something and failing to do so is the most familiar of experiences.

You might be listening to a favorite podcast or reading a reasonably priced and handsomely

packaged book based on that podcast and finding that your mind wanders.

It happens to me all the time.

I might be reading up on, say, 13th century Franciscan philosophy and realize that my eyes have been drifting across the same page

for several minutes without my actually taking in any meaning.

At other moments, we are also able to pay attention to things without any effort.

We are often aware of things, yet not consciously aware of them.

Suppose that you're at a crowded party, focusing on a conversation with one person, and then halfway across the room

someone else says your name.

Your ears will prick up and you'll notice you've been mentioned.

You have been monitoring the hubbub of voices in the room without even realizing it.

Given how common these experiences are, you'd think they would have attracted the interest of

philosophers from the very beginning, but that isn't really

...